Steps towards an ecology for the internet: computing through crisis into the next decade of growth
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Conference Paper
Abstract
The Internet has grown from a humble set of protocols for end-to-end connectivity into a critical global system with no builtin “immune system”. In the next decade the Internet will likely grow to a trillion nodes and need protection from threats ranging from floods of fake generative data to AI-driven malware. Unfortunately, growing centralisation has lead to the breakdown of mutualism across the network, with surveillance capitalism now the dominant business model. We take lessons from from biological systems towards evolving a more resilient Internet that can integrate adaptation mechanisms into its fabric. We also contribute ideas for how the Internet might incorporate digital immune systems, including how software stacks might mutate to encourage more architectural diversity. We strongly advocate for the Internet to “re-decentralise” towards incentivising more mutualistic forms of communication.
Date Issued
2025-08-17
Date Acceptance
2025-08-01
Citation
Proceedings of the sixth decennial Aarhus conference: Computing X Crisis, 2025, pp.107-116
ISBN
9798400720031
Publisher
ACM
Start Page
107
End Page
116
Journal / Book Title
Proceedings of the sixth decennial Aarhus conference: Computing X Crisis
Copyright Statement
Copyright © 2025 Copyright held by the owner/author(s). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
License URL
Identifier
10.1145/3744169.3744180
Source
AAR 2025: The sixth decennial Aarhus conference: Computing X Crisis
Subjects
ecology
protocols
evolution
botnets
malware
open source
containment
code models
artificial intelligence
specifications
Publication Status
Published
Start Date
2025-08-18
Finish Date
2025-08-22
Coverage Spatial
Aarhus N, Denmark
Date Publish Online
2025-08-17